GCP - Asset vs Resource

TL;DR

Asset is a broader term: Resource is one category of the Assets.

Resource

Represents a fundamental entity within GCP that a customer can create, manage, and use.

Examples:

• Compute Engine VM instances
• Cloud Storage buckets
• BigQuery tables

Resources are part of the GCP resource hierarchy. The resource containers are Organizations, Folders, Projects.

Asset

Asset is a broader term, which includes

• GCP Resources: examples mentioned above, like GCE instances.
• GKE Resources: K8s types, like Pods, Deployments, etc.
• Policies: e.g. IAM Policy, Organization Policy, etc.
• Runtime information: OS Inventory, etc.
• Other cloud resources: e.g. AWS resources.
• Relationships between resources.
• Others: a CUI (critical user interaction) or a buganizer issue.

Cloud Asset Inventory API (google.cloud.asset.v1) can be used to access asset metadata.